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This Victory May Haunt Us
Winning still requires getting bloody.

BY MAX BOOT
Wednesday, November 14, 2001 12:01 a.m. EST

...This is not a war being won with American blood and guts. It is being won with the blood and guts of the Northern Alliance, helped by copious quantities of American ordnance and a handful of American advisers. After Sept. 11, President Bush promised that this would not be another bloodless, push-button war, but that is precisely what it has been.

...The longer term danger is that the war in Afghanistan will do nothing to dispel the widespread impression that Americans are fat, indolent, and unwilling to fight the barbarians on their own terms. We got into this mess in the first place because of the widespread impression--born in Beirut in 1983, seemingly confirmed in Mogadishu in 1993--that Americans are incapable of suffering casualties stoically. This "bodybag syndrome" is our greatest strategic weakness; it is no doubt why Osama bin Laden dared to send his holy warriors to our shores to kill thousands of our countrymen.

...The low-risk manner in which we have conducted the Afghan campaign so far can only add credence to this "bodybag" myth. It is, of course, a rightful cause for celebration that not a single American life has been lost to enemy fire on the road to Kabul, but it can only be a cause of worry that we have not shown a willingness to conduct ground operations in earnest. Our bombing campaign reveals great technical and logistical prowess, but it does not show that we have the determination to stick a bayonet in the guts of our enemy.